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Hello everyone! I hope that all of you are well. I was asked to write about exercise and fasting, more specifically the dos and don’t of exercising while fasting. Based upon my experiences, I’ve put together a short list.

DO your research – Before I even started the first fast, I did a ton of research. One of the questions that I looked for was if it was ok to exercise while fasting. There are a number of blogs out there that discuss this in pretty good detail. The best ones I found were the ones that talked about how they felt while exercising and after exercising. Granted, everyone is different, but reading the stories are truly encouraging and you can get great tips as well.

DON’T exercise at the beginning of your fast.The beginning of the fast is the best time to really observe your body and the changes and signals that you experience. It is important to get to know how you feel at different times of the day. It is vital to be able to recognize your bodies signals for when you are hungry and when you’re having a “healing reaction”, which is a type of ill feeling that happens when your body needs to release toxins that have been stirred up as a result of the fast. It could mean headache, nausea, a stomachache, back pain, or something else. Typically, once you eliminate the waste from your system, the reaction goes away. The point is that the beginning of the fast should be spent becoming acclimated to your bodies reactions and changes. Once you feel comfortable, then…

DO pick a time to exercise. I highly recommend exercising in a relatively consistent manner. Pick whether you want to exercise in the morning, afternoon, or evening. It’s been my experience that I can manage my body’s response to the fast better if I keep things consistent and on schedule. For example, I typically did my salt water flush every day between 9 and 10. That way, my system was completely flushed by 11:30 at the latest. I liked to exercise in the morning. When fasting, my energy was pretty high, and when I exercised I felt energized and exhilarated. When I exercised at night, I found it harder to get to sleep.

DO take it easy when you exercise. You are operating on a limited caloric intake, so it is important to dial back your routine a little bit. Pace yourself, especially when you first start out.

DO drink plenty of water. Water helps to flush toxins and when you are fasting, toxins are being stirred up in the body and they need to be flushed. Water will help that. It will help ease some of your reactions.

Exercising during a fast can feel great, but please be careful and if at any time you feel ill, then stop. Don’t overdo it! Please feel free to ask me any other questions if you have any. Good luck!

Happy Almost Friday! I thought it appropriate to unveil what I’ve learned about what affects weight while I’m in gym mode and can say that I take my own advice. There are so many factors to take into account that affect one’s weight. I could write forever on it but I thought I’d keep it short and sweet, with of course links to do more research if you wish

Eating Healthy Foods: The goal here is to eat everything in moderation. I’ve read in many places that fruits and vegetables should be the larger portions of what you are eating. Some say stay away from meats, while others say if you eat meat make sure its lean. Dairy should also be limited. (Skinny Bitch goes into greater detail) Also do a little research as to where your food comes from as not all foods are made equally.

Exercise: Across the board, I’ve read that exercise is a MUST. A minimum of 30 minutes a day of an activity that brings your heart rate up. It can also be broken up into chunks throughout the day if you don’t have one 30 minute chunk of time to dedicate to YOURSELF.

Stress: Stress has a negative affect on your weight. If you eat to de-stress than you may gain weight. The opposite can also happen if you do not eat properly…dropping too much weight is unhealthy. Find healthy ways to de-stress, exercise works wonders

Salt: Higher intake of salt causes the body to retain water. Always take a look at the ingredients and check out the sodium count.

Alcohol: Alcohol should be consumed in moderation, example a glass of wine for women and two glass for men (I think this should be the other way around but I don’t write this stuff lol) Some alcoholic beverages are HIGH in calories, which can lead to weight gain.

There are a lot of things as you can see that affect your weight, either positively or negatively. Jump start a healthy weight by eating right and exercising. Take a look at the links below, Happy Reading